In the best cases a siren from an emergency vehicle is rushing someone to the hospital. Other times a fire truck racing to the scene. The worst case Is when you hear several sirens coming from all directions as you know you are at the epicenter.
That is what happened this afternoon while walking Charlie around a quarter of five. As ANC Commissioner near the scene I inquired to the officers at the roadblock as to what was happening. The response received is in the quote below.
I don’t know. I was just told to be here.
Perhaps the police department lacks the proper culture, transparency, or mission aligned work assignments. I’d have expected better communication where in addition to a cell phone, each officer appears to still have a radio on their person and potentially in their car, not to mention an internet connected laptop installed.
Generally the police department seems to be helpful when it comes to inquiries, minimally referring me to the officer in charge to provide updates so I was surprised thus time and gave our MOCR a call.
In conjunction with the council member’s office, we rely on our ward liaison in the Mayor’s Office of Community Relations for nearly real-time information. Unfortunately in Ward 1, I normally am calling in response to crime to find out if anyone was injured and after proper investigation, what was the cause of the incident.
While no information was immediately available other than 8-10 gunshots fired and no one reportedly injured, this was more information than the officers on the scene apparently had for which I was thankful.
By 5:10 a text alert had been issued about “police activity” in the area and road closures, but even now as I write, no further updates on what had actually transpired.
Thankfully I have not received any additional updates from our ward representatives, I did have a call with our Councilmember’s office too, in regards to injuries.